A surgical technique is learned by physically practicing the technique. For example, a student may practice making an incision and then suturing the incision on a living patient (e.g., a dog, pig, etc.), a cadaver, or a model (e.g., the backing of a carpet remnant). Each of these has it disadvantages.
For example, while practicing surgical techniques on living animals offers the advantage of actual surgical conditions, there are high associated costs due to having to obtain, take care of, and dispose of the animals. Also, societal attitudes are increasingly less favorable towards the use of animals for such purposes.
Surgical conditions with cadaver tissue are less realistic than with actual living tissue due to a lack of flowing body fluids and the physical characteristics of dead tissue. Also, there are high costs associated with obtaining, maintaining, and disposing of cadavers.
While practicing making an incision and suturing on a backing of a carpet remnant may be inexpensive and portable for the student, such a model has a poor correlation to actual tissue and can end up causing the student to develop incorrect techniques.
There is a need in the art for simulated anatomical models useable for practicing surgical techniques, wherein the simulated anatomical models overcome the above-discussed disadvantages.